


Touch

by heartsdesire456



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Consent is Sexy, Flirting, Fluff, M/M, Post-Canon, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Touching
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-19
Updated: 2016-08-19
Packaged: 2018-08-09 17:13:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7810402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heartsdesire456/pseuds/heartsdesire456
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alec notices that Magnus never touches him. Ever.</p>
<p>(Now available in <a href="https://ficbook.net/readfic/4695076">Russian</a>!)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Touch

**Author's Note:**

> So, everybody will have noticed (especially if you have a tumblr) that Magnus never actually touches Alec. Even after Alec kissed him, when he holds his hand out like he's going to touch Alec's arm, he just hovers over his shirt.
> 
> Annnnnd this adorableness happened.
> 
> Just a short little ficlet!!!

Alec wasn’t sure how long it took him to realize it, but it had become apparent to him that he had missed a very strange thing that Magnus did all the time: not touch him.

It wasn’t like he was used to people just grabbing him and hauling him around, but everybody touched people’s arms to grab their attention, or caught their shoulder to stop them walking out of a room, or patted their back when they laughed at something. With people he was familiar with, Alec was used to Izzy holding his hand and touching him with that family intimacy that siblings often had. It wasn’t even unheard of for her to crawl into his bed and demand he cuddle with her when she had a bad hunt and needed to be reminded that her brother was there for her. Even Jace hugged Alec with the ease of years of being his brother and parabatai and didn’t hold back with any of that ‘bro hug’ bullshit. Alec was pretty much used to people getting right in there and hugging him, or grabbing his hand, or at least touching his arm occasionally.

But Magnus never touched him. 

As he sat across from him now, on their first dinner date – Alec’s first dinner date ever – since they had only managed to grab coffee twice before now with all the crazy stuff going on in their lives, he realized that, in the past three weeks since the day he kissed him at his and Lydia’s aborted wedding, Magnus hadn’t touched him a single time. 

Alec had kissed him two times since the first kiss, one after their first coffee date ended in him walking Magnus home and the other just a small, relieved kiss after Magnus survived being attacked by Valentine’s men. Both times, Magnus kissed back, but Alec hadn’t noticed that, all three times he had kissed him, Magnus never touched him anywhere except their lips. They hadn’t spent much time alone other than those two coffee dates, since they both were really busy still trying to find Jace and fighting attacks from Valentine’s men and his Forsaken, but every time, Magnus and Alec gravitated to each other, standing on the same side of the table and what not, but Magnus had never touched him. 

The only times Magnus had ever touched Alec, Alec now realized, was when they kissed and the night he gave Magnus his strength to help save Luke. 

Alec had noticed it first, tonight, when he arrived at Magnus’s apartment to pick him up and Magnus shushed him, as he had one before, with a finger hovering over his lips but not touching them. It was the first time he had noticed it, but so far, since he had started paying attention, Magnus had hovered a hand over Alec’s forearm as he gazed up at him in concern when he hit his head on the bar in the subway car, when Magnus held his hand over Alec’s chest, but didn’t actually touch his shirt, while grandly giving his name to the hostess for their reservation, and when they got to their seat, Magnus had once again held his hand so close Alec could almost feel the warmth of his skin over Alec’s lower back while guiding him into the seat nearest the window before settling cross from him.

As Alec was thinking about it, Magnus reached out, hand just over Alec’s wrist, but never touching him. “Alexander? Are you alright?” He smiled with a tinge of concern. “You’re very quiet tonight. Well,” he gestured absently. “Quieter than usual.”

Alec tilted his head curiously. “Why don’t you ever touch me?” he asked, deciding to just be blunt.

Magnus raised both eyebrows. “Why Alexander!” He faked a fluttery hand of shock at his chest. 

Alec rolled his eyes, smiling. “You know what I mean.” He nodded to his wrist. “You do that, that thing. Where you hold your hand like you’re going to touch my arm or my back or something and you never actually touch me.” He shrugged. “I just noticed tonight and, thinking about it, you’ve only actually touched me when I’ve kissed you.”

Magnus leaned forward, his eyes so open and honest that Alec was reminded how different ‘showy’ Magnus was from this one, the one that seemed to rarely reveal himself. “Alexander, I know how new this all is to you, and I would never want to make you uncomfortable in any way.”

“And touching my arm will make me uncomfortable?” he asked with a teasing smile. He could see Magnus eyes lighten with relief as he realized Alec wasn’t unhappy, just curious.

“Well,” Magnus said, sitting back up straight. “It’s wrong to ever touch someone without their permission. I wouldn’t ever lay my hands on someone who didn’t expressly want me to.” He smiled teasingly. “I’d definitely never just grab somebody and kiss them out of nowhere.”

Alec smiled brighter. “It’s just funny that everybody has warned me over and over that you’re some lecherous Casanova just trying to get in my pants, and you won’t even touch my arm to get my attention.”

Magnus rolled his eyes. “There is a difference in promiscuity and being a creep. Just because I have fun doesn’t mean I don’t only have fun with people who expressly ask for my attention.” He blushed slightly, leaning in some, his hand hovering over Alec’s wrist again, clearly a natural response. “Though, you have to know, Alexander, that obviously I haven’t been doing those things since I met you. Just because we haven’t talked about anything official, I would never use than as an excuse to sleep with someone else while-“ 

“Magnus,” Alec interrupted, turning his hand over and curling his fingers with Magnus’s. He gave him a shy smile, already feeling how red his ears were turning, and bit his lip, looking down at their hands. “You have my permission to touch me. I would really like for you to touch me.”

Magnus gave him that big, surprised, _real_ smile that Alec was still getting used to, and curled their hands more firmly together. “You’ll regret that when I don’t ever let you have your hand back now,” he joked, still smiling brightly, and Alec just shrugged and smirked.

“I’m right-handed, I’m sure we could work something out.”


End file.
